JPH071358Y2 - Unmanned underwater cleaning machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial field of application] The present invention relates to an unmanned underwater cleaning machine for underwater structural members and the like.

[Conventional technology]

For example, in order to clean the outer circumference of a steel pipe pedestal of a huge offshore structure standing on the seabed, conventionally, as shown in the perspective view of FIG. 5, a diver dives or underwater unmanned cleaning as described below. The machine is mounted on the pedestal and cleaned remotely via an umbilical cable.

As an apparatus of this type, as shown in the plan view of FIG. 6, the unmanned aerial body 1 is provided with a pair of right and left gripping arms 8, 8 projecting from each other, and hydraulic cylinders 9 attached to the tips thereof and facing each other.
Then, the drone main body 1 is attached to the pedestal 7 to be cleaned via the contact member 10, and the brush rotator 4 for rotating the brush 6 is pressed against the pedestal 7 via the hydraulic cylinder 5 for cleaning.

Here, in order to change the cleaning position, the hydraulic cylinder 9 is loosened, and the front and rear thrusters 2 and / or the vertical thrusters 3 are operated to appropriately move the unmanned aerial vehicle body.

[Problems to be solved by the device]

However, with such a means, it is necessary to repeatedly release and fix the grip for changing the cleaning position of the object to be cleaned one after another, and the operation of maintaining the position of the unmanned aerial vehicle along with the movement. The operation is complicated because it is necessary.

The present invention has been proposed in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide an underwater unmanned cleaning machine that is easy to operate and can quickly clean a surface to be cleaned.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

To this end, the present invention cleans an object by driving and controlling a rotating brush attached to an underwater television camera, a pair of front and rear thrusters and a vertical thruster supported by the object through an umbilical cable. In the unmanned aerial vehicle, a guide rail having a hydraulic cylinder with a contact member that extends along a surface to be cleaned and cooperates with each other to hold an object at left and right ends, and is movably mounted along the guide rail. It is characterized by including the unmanned aerial vehicle body and locking means attached to the unmanned aerial vehicle body for fixing the unmanned aerial vehicle body to the guide rail at a desired position.

[Action]

According to this structure, once the unmanned aerial vehicle body is attached to the object to be cleaned through the arcuate guide rails, the thrust directions of the pair of front and rear thrusters on the left and right are reversed, so that the unmanned aerial vehicle body is guided by the arcuate guide rail. While moving along the rail, cleaning the surface to be cleaned does not change the grip position of the guide rail,
It is possible to clean about half the circumference of the object to be cleaned at one time.

In this way, after the cleaning for about a half turn, the unmanned aerial body is moved slightly up and down in the conventional manner, and then the same cleaning operation is performed by rotating it in the opposite direction by a half rotation to clean the next cleaning surface.

In this way, the surface to be cleaned can be quickly cleaned without unnecessarily winding the umbilical cable around the object to be cleaned.

〔Example〕

An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to cleaning a steel pipe pedestal of an offshore structure will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the state in which the unmanned aerial vehicle body has moved along the arcuate rail in FIG. 1, and FIG.
FIG. 4 is a side view of the drawing, and FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line IV-IV of FIG.

In the above figure, the same reference numerals as in FIG. 6 indicate the same members as in FIG. 6, respectively, and the structure of FIG. 1 differs from that of FIG. 6 in that it is a semicircle instead of the gripping arm 8 of FIG. This is due to the use of arcuate guide rails.

That is, in FIGS. 1 to 3, 8a is a pair of upper and lower semi-circular guide rails parallel to each other with an appropriate vertical distance, and hydraulic cylinders 9 facing each other at the left and right ends of each guide rail 8a. There is a contact member 10 attached to each of the opposite ends.

Here, the guide rails 8a, 8a are vertically symmetrically arranged side by side, and as shown in FIG.
8b are arranged at equal intervals, and the inner sides thereof are formed as grooves 8c whose openings are opposed to each other.

In this groove 8c, as shown in FIG. 4, rollers pivotally attached to the upper and lower ends of the vertical shaft 12 supported on the outer peripheral front end of the drone body 1.
The unmanned aerial vehicle body is movably supported along the guide rails 8a by inserting the 12-1 and 12-1.

11 is a hydraulic cylinder for fixation which is attached to the upper, lower, left and right ends of the unmanned aerial vehicle body 1 in a direction pointing toward the center of the pillar 7,
By fitting the tip pin of the piston rod into the pin hole 8b of the guide rails 8a, 8a, one of the unmanned aerial vehicle body 1 with respect to the guide rail 8a is fixed.

The unmanned aerial vehicle body 1 is equipped with a control valve unit 13 and a hydraulic power source unit 14 for performing various operations by hydraulic pressure, an umbilical cable 15 for supplying a signal and a power source is attached, and the cleaning state is monitored. An underwater television camera 16 is also attached for this purpose.

According to this structure, once the unmanned aerial vehicle main body is mounted on the object to be cleaned via the arcuate guide rails, the thrust directions of the pair of front and rear thrusters on the left and right are reversed so that the unmanned aerial vehicle main body is guided by the arcuate guide rail. Since the surface to be cleaned is cleaned while moving along the rail, it is possible to clean approximately half the circumference of the body to be cleaned at one time without changing the grip position of the guide rail.

In this way, after the cleaning for about half the circumference, the unmanned aerial body is moved slightly up and down in the conventional manner, and then the adjacent surface to be cleaned is cleaned by rotating in the opposite direction a half rotation in the same manner.

By repeating such operations, the surface to be cleaned can be quickly cleaned without unnecessarily winding the umbilical cable around the object to be cleaned.

[Effect of device]

With such a structure, the brush can be continuously cleaned using the arc-shaped guide rail as a guide, and the grip is released and fixed and the submersible itself is moved and held every time the cleaning location changes even a little. This eliminates the need for operability and improves cleaning efficiency.

In short, according to the present invention, a rotary brush attached to an underwater television camera, a pair of left and right thrusters, and a vertical thruster supported by the object is driven and controlled by an umbilical cable to drive and control the object. In an unmanned aerial vehicle for cleaning, a guide rail having hydraulic cylinders with abutting members that extend along a surface to be cleaned and cooperate with each other to hold an object, and is movably mounted along the guide rail. By including the unmanned aerial vehicle body and locking means attached to the unmanned aerial vehicle body and fixing the unmanned aerial vehicle body to the guide rail at a desired position, the operation is easy and the surface to be cleaned is swiftly cleaned. The present invention is extremely useful industrially because it provides an unmanned underwater cleaner that can be used.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to cleaning a pedestal of a marine structure, and FIG. 2 shows a state in which an unmanned aerial vehicle body moves along an arcuate rail in FIG. Similarly, a plan view, FIG. 3 is a side view of FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is IV of FIG.
FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line IV. FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing a conventional cleaning procedure for a pillar of a marine structure, and FIG. 6 is a plan view showing a known unmanned cleaning machine used for cleaning of FIG. 1 ... Unmanned aerial vehicle body, 2 ... Front / rear thruster, 3 ... Vertical thruster, 4 ... Brush rotary machine, 5 ... Brush brush forward / backward hydraulic cylinder, 6 ... Brush, 7 ... Cleaning object (post) ), 8a …… Guide rail, 8b …… Pin hole, 8c
...... Groove, 9 …… Holding hydraulic cylinder, 10 …… Abutting member, 11 …… Fixing hydraulic cylinder, 12 …… Vertical axis, 12-1
...... Movement roller, 13 …… Control valve unit, 14 …… Hydraulic source unit, 15 …… Umbilical cable, 16 …… Underwater TV camera,

Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Masanori Tajima 1-11-25 Higashiooi, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Goyo Construction Co., Ltd. Technical Research Institute (56) Reference JP-A-48-74002 (JP, A) JP-A-SHO 62-299492 (JP, A)

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. An object is cleaned by driving and controlling a rotary brush attached to an unmanned aerial body supported by the object and having an underwater television camera, a pair of left and right thrusters and a vertical thruster, through an umbilical cable. In an unmanned aerial vehicle, a guide rail having a hydraulic cylinder with a contact member that extends along a surface to be cleaned and cooperates with each other to hold an object at left and right ends, and the guide rail that is movably mounted along the guide rail. An unmanned submersible cleaner comprising: an unmanned aerial body; and locking means attached to the aforesaid unmanned aerial body to fix the unmanned aerial body to the guide rail at a desired position.